The invention is directed to a system and method for requesting and obtaining diagnostic information from a controller device.
In the environment of embedded controllers it is often a difficult and manual task to get diagnostic information from a controller to the tool that controls that controller. Typically, an engineer must establish a communication session to the controller such as a TELNET session using the Internet or an Ethernet, or alternatively, with terminal emulator technology using RS232 (Recommended Standard 232). TELNET is a terminal emulation protocol that is commonly used over the Internet. TELNET technology allows a user to log onto a program and run that program from a remote computer or terminal.
Once a communication session connection has been established between a tool and a controller device, the engineer manually submits diagnostic commands to the controller and waits for feedback These diagnostic commands are in a low level command language. Thus, the commands are not intuitive and often the engineers must be prompted by the controller manufacturer to input the necessary commands. Further, since the commands are entered manually the process is time-consuming and prone to typing errors.
Once commands are entered, the engineer must wait for feedback from the controller. The feedback regarding the query controller status is displayed to the engineer, or, is not typically in a form that can be readily forwarded electronically for storage or transmission to a remote destination for further evaluation.
Thus, the known systems and methods for obtaining diagnostic information from a controller provide a cumbersome and inefficient method of querying the controller status and do not practically provide for electronic transmission of controller responses.
It would be desirable to provide a method and system for effectively troubleshooting controller problems which allows engineers to quickly and accurately collect diagnostic data from the controller. It would also be desirable to minimize the opportunity for damage to the controller due to typing errors in a command requesting diagnostic information from the tool.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the known systems and provides additional advantages by providing a method and a system for automated acquisition of diagnostic information from a controller. The user selects an operational status command from a tool. The operational status command is transmitted to the controller. The controller executes the operational status command and the controller obtains an operational status response. The operational status response is transmitted to the tool. An operational status report is displayed.